They are two iconoclasts of (jazz!) furniture: Éric Normand on bass and Louis Beaudoin-de la Sablonnière on guitar, hence the (memorable) name Brûlez les meubles. But since any good job of undermining a certain cushy-ness of conventional jazz is best done in a group, they’ve invited Marianne Trudel (piano), Ingrid Laubrock (tenor sax) and Jonathan Huard (vibraphone) to join in their demolition. I say demolition, but that’s perhaps a bit strong. Let’s just say they’re redecorating in style, spraying the linoleum and old wallpaper with atonal sprays, offbeat harmonies and inspired impros, but they’re still respectful of the framework and the load-bearing walls aren’t sacrificed in a sacrificial tornado blinded by tabula rasa-style rage. Folio #5 is essentially an album of jazz that is both skilful and judiciously spontaneous, unfolding through the impeccable inspirations of the artists present. Musical and purely sonic ideas are exchanged in the same way as philosophies are exchanged: anchored in the knowledge necessary to hold one’s own, but capable of adding to it in a way that feeds the other, and so on. The workmanship is beautiful, delicate and often rather pointillist in its pictorial and discursive constructions, through which often appear some very beautiful, reassuring and endearing melodic lines .
Contemporary jazz of the highest order, with the spirits of Paul Bley, Debussy, Metheny and Webern hovering freely above.
